HoF Hutch...

[purplefaithful]

Former Vikings star Steve Hutchinson’s ‘long wait’ for hall of fame induction will end soon

The 6-foot-5, 313-pound Hutchinson made four of his seven Pro Bowls and had three of his five first-team all-pro selections with the Vikings. He earned his other postseason accolades with the Seahawks, and also played a year with the Tennessee Titans before retiring after the 2012 season. 


After being selected by Seattle with the No. 17 pick in the 2001 draft, Hutchinson spent his first three season in the NFL facing off in practice against future hall of fame defensive tackle John Randle. Randle starred with the Vikings from 1990-2000 before playing with the Seahawks from 2001-03. 
“It was sometime in the training camp of my second year in Seattle, there was a stretch there where — and he’ll probably tell you differently — he didn’t beat me in one-on-ones in practice,” remembered Hutchinson, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., and works as a football consultant with the Seahawks. “I think for me it like was a little bit of an awakening. …. Going against John made Sunday seem like it was slow motion at times.” 
Hutchinson signed a seven-year, $49 million contract as a free agent with the Vikings in 2006 after getting a transition tag from Seattle. It was dubbed a “poison-pill” deal since, if the Seahawks matched it, the entire contract would be guaranteed (rather than $18.5 million) if Hutchinson wasn’t the highest-paid offensive lineman on his team. Since the Seahawks had signed future hall of fame tackle Walter Jones to a more lucrative deal, they didn’t match the Vikings’ offer. 
Hutchinson called 2009 his most memorable Vikings season, when they went 12-4 and made it to the NFC Championship Game. But they suffered a devastating 31-28 overtime loss at New Orleans, and the Saints two weeks later defeated Indianapolis 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV. 
“We felt strongly enough that if we were able to make it on to the Super Bowl, there was no doubt that we would have won that game,” Hutchinson said. 
With Minnesota, Hutchinson said he got even better by battling Pro Bowl defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams in practice. 
“There’s the cliché, the old saying in football, iron sharpens iron, and when you got to go against Kevin and Pat every day in practice, it just makes your job on Sunday easier,” Hutchinson said. “That’s just another testament and another reason why I’m here talking to you about me going into the hall of fame.” 
Kevin Williams and Pat Williams both are planning to attend Hutchinson’s enshrinement in Canton. 
“Man, Steve was massive out there,” Kevin Williams, who one day could join Hutchinson in the hall of fame, said about battling him in practice. “It was tough to get around him and he was so patient and strong. It was definitely great in practice to work against him because if I’m going against one of the best guys in the league at guard, that’s only making me better. … He’s very well deserving of the hall of fame, and I’m going to be there to celebrate with him.”
https://www.twincities.com/2021/07/14/fo...-end-soon/

[Guest]

When Hutchinson first became a Viking he lived in a very upscale neighborhood here in MN (Medina) right next to one of my buddies. 

Randle was on the same block and he and Hutchinson were good friends.

I got to hang with em both a few times. Outside of Bryant McKinnie, Hutchinson is one of the most massive men I have ever met.

Nice guy too. He and his wife did an awful lot for our community while they were here. 

Damn, wish that 09 team could have pulled off that OT game in Superdome. 



 

[Guest]

Hutch was the perfect NFL OG: strong, stout, feisty and tenacious. Strength gets you respect in that league. He could also mirror pretty well. I loved the whole 'poison pill' thing, Minnesota dropped a bomb on the NFL when they started that. It was genius. 

[Guest]

@StickyBun said:
Hutch was the perfect NFL OG: strong, stout, feisty and tenacious. Strength gets you respect in that league. He could also mirror pretty well. I loved the whole 'poison pill' thing, Minnesota dropped a bomb on the NFL when they started that. It was genius. 

And the Seahawks response?  they poison pilled Nate Burleson's offer.  

[Guest]

Respect!

[Guest]

How a bitter pill for Seahawks became such a sweet deal for Vikings and Hall of Fame guard Steve Hutchinson

On Feb. 23, 2006, Minnesota made Seattle a deal that was too poisonous to swallow 

By Mark Craig Star Tribune AUGUST 7, 2021 — 1:32AM

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Steve Hutchinson, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Centennial Class, receives his gold jacket Friday

The famous and controversial "poison pill" that brought the prime of Steve Hutchinson's hall of fame career to Minnesota and led to an NFL rule change probably never would have happened if then-Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren had been in the office on that fateful day back on Feb. 23, 2006.
"So Mike leaves town and says to the front office, 'We're good on Hutch, right?' " said former Vikings coach Brad Childress. "They say, 'Yeah, yeah, we're putting the franchise tag on him. Don't worry.'"
Only the Seahawks didn't go that route. To save about $600,000, then-general manager Tim Ruskell reneged without telling Holmgren or giving him a chance to fight it. Rather than use the franchise tag, which essentially would have killed the market for Hutchinson by including two first-round draft picks as compensation for losing him, the Seahawks used the transition tag, which came with a right of first refusal only.
"They left the door open, and it became the perfect storm," said Rob Brzezinski, Vikings executive vice president of football operations and the architect of the poison pill as the team's longtime salary cap guy.
"You're always trying to understand the system and be creative and give your team a competitive advantage. What we did is something you'd only consider for a unique player. And obviously Hutch going into the Hall of Fame justifies that, I think."
Hutchinson will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio on Saturday night. A member of the Class of 2020, he finally gets his moment on football's biggest stage after the pandemic canceled last year's events.
Six of Hutchinson's 12 NFL seasons as a dominant left guard came with the Vikings (2006-11). Three of his five first-team All-Pro nods and four of his seven Pro Bowls also came with the Purple.
None of that would have happened had Brzezinski not put a clause in the offer sheet that said the entire seven-year, $49 million deal – a record-setting amount for a guard at the time – became fully guaranteed if Hutchinson wasn't the highest-paid offensive lineman on the team. That would never be the case in Minnesota but in Seattle, left tackle Walter Jones was making more money.
"I never wanted to leave Seattle and I know the Seahawks would have matched the offer without the poison pill," Hutchinson said. "We were coming off the Super Bowl and had great chemistry on the offensive line. But it was a no-brainer for me. On one hand, you had a team that wasn't doing much of anything to keep me. And on the other hand, you had a team thinking outside the box to make sure they got me."
From Holmgren's viewpoint, the move was below the belt. He was angry at the Vikings and even angrier at Hutchinson.
"It was a business decision, so I never really had an issue with anyone in Seattle outside of Holmgren," Hutchinson said. "Right after it went down, I went back to Seattle, and Mike Holmgren and I had a big falling out. Big screaming match about the whole thing.
"It took about 10 years before we kind of rekindled. Everything is good now."
Childress and Holmgren had been coaching acquaintances going back to when Childress and Andy Reid were at Northern Arizona and Holmgren was at BYU. They also shared the same agent, Bob LaMonte. Holmgren tried to use those connections to talk Childress into dropping the poison pill.
"Seattle had seven days to match our offer sheet," said Childress, who was a rookie head coach at the time. "Mike calls me and says, 'Listen, this poison pill thing, it's not a good deal for anybody.' And he says, 'As a matter of fact, it's really frowned on in league circles. It's just understood that you don't do this. On and on.'"
Childress' response: Sorry, but no deal.
"Of course, it wasn't too long after we signed Hutch that Mike called me back and told me what they were planning to do with Nate Burleson," Childress said.
Burleson was a restricted free agent. Seattle signed him to an offer sheet with multiple poison pills. Among them was a clause that guaranteed the contract in full if Burleson played more than five games in a season in Minnesota.
Burleson became a Seahawk, but the Vikings did receive a third-round pick in return. The league, which already was mad at the Vikings, became incensed at the situation.
"Later on, through the collective bargaining agreement, they made the rule change and closed the loophole," Childress noted. "Frankly, it should have been closed a long time before that."
The size of Hutchinson's record-setting contract also turned heads around the league.
"I remember when we did that deal, [Patriots owner] Mr. [Robert] Kraft criticized us, saying it's lunacy to pay a guard like that," Brzezinski said. "A couple years later, he paid Logan Mankins, his guard, [$51 million over six years]. And as you can see, over time, the guard market has exploded."
Part of Brzezinski's "perfect storm" scenario included a financial commitment from ownership. The Wilf family was in its first offseason as owners after about five years of Red McCombs' frugal spending.
"Paying great players, you can never go wrong," Brzezinski said. "But you can't do something like that without the Wilf family giving us all the resources possible to be competitive."
Former Vikings center Matt Birk said the players were shocked at how the 2006 offseason unfolded.
"All I knew was Red, so it was different," Birk said. "The Wilf's first year, we got Hutch, [Ben] Leber, Chester Taylor. We never went after guys, especially on the O-line. When we got Hutch, it was like, 'Oh my gosh, we're signing the premier guard in the NFL. This is different.'"
Hutchinson returned to Seattle as a Viking on Oct. 22, 2006.
"I just remember all the boos and chants against me," said Hutchinson, who now works for the Seahawks as personnel consultant. "I was like, 'Wait a minute, it was just seven months ago that I was in the Super Bowl with you guys.'"
The Vikings won 31-13. One of the touchdowns was a franchise-record 95-yard touchdown run by Taylor. Right over the left side behind tackle Bryant McKinnie, Hutchinson, Birk and fullback Tony Richardson.
"That was kind of ironic," Hutchinson said. "That was our bread-and-butter play in Seattle all those years. Kind of sweet."
Or, from Seattle's perspective, one seriously bitter poison pill.

[Guest]

I never thought he was the player he was advertised to be in Seattle when he was here.  Never really saw the nastiness that they said he had and thought he was a decent guard, but not dominating.  He actually seemed to play soft at times and got over powered.  Seemed to be more hype during his time here than production.  

[Guest]

• 5x first-team All-Pro (2003, 2005, 2007-2009)
• NFL 2000s All-Decade Team
• 2x second-team All-Pro (2004 & 2006)
• 7x Pro Bowl (2003-2009)

I'd settle for another HOF'er...Only thing close to Hutch I recall @ OG is McDaniel and White was a beast too. 

[Guest]

@purplefaithful said:

• 5x first-team All-Pro (2003, 2005, 2007-2009)
• NFL 2000s All-Decade Team
• 2x second-team All-Pro (2004 & 2006)
• 7x Pro Bowl (2003-2009)

I'd settle for another HOF'er...Only thing close to Hutch I recall @ OG is McDaniel and White was a beast too. 

You say 5x,  but only list 4 times all pro 1st team.  Is that common core?  :p

[Guest]

@JimmyinSD said:

@purplefaithful said:

• 5x first-team All-Pro (2003, 2005, 2007-2009)
• NFL 2000s All-Decade Team
• 2x second-team All-Pro (2004 & 2006)
• 7x Pro Bowl (2003-2009)

I'd settle for another HOF'er...Only thing close to Hutch I recall @ OG is McDaniel and White was a beast too. 

You say 5x,  but only list 4 times all pro 1st team.  Is that common core?  :p

2003
2005
2007
2008
2009

5x all pro.  

laughable some consider him a “decent guard”